Five players make their regular season Leaf debut tonight as a revamped team tries to get off to the proverbial “good start” that has been its mantra.

Captain Dion Phaneuf and his Maple Leafs face a Habs squad that is missing star player Mike Cammalleri on Thursday night.

By:Kevin McGranSports Reporter, Published on Thu Oct 07 2010

Jean-Sebastien Giguere will start in net tonight as the Maple Leaf open their 93rd hockey season as a puck-mad city hopes for a much better year.

Five players make their regular season Leaf debut Thursday night — Colby Armstrong, Mike Brown, Clarke MacArthur, Kris Versteeg, Mike Zigomanis — as a revamped team tries to get off to the proverbial “good start” that has been its mantra through training camp.

“A big thing in this league is to start well so you don't have to come from behind and it's definitely a goal of ours to have a good start to the season,” said centre Tyler Bozak. “You want to come out hard in the first period. I'm sure the fans will be excited and give us a little extra boost.”

The Leafs had a tendency to give up the first goal or two last season, a big reason why they were last in the East, and want to turn that stat around.

“We have to be ready to play right off the bat,” said coach Ron Wilson. “In our league, it's simple. If you score first, you probably win 70 per cent of the time.

“It's a huge statistic. It doesn't mean if you get scored against, you're going to lose, but it certainly helps and puts you in the fight frame of mind. Hopefully we're ready and we're not trying so hard to score the first goal that we open up ourselves to counterattack opportunities.”

The Habs will have Carey Price in net — he's recovered from the flu — but will be without Richmond Hill's Mike Cammalleri, suspended for one game. Some of the Leafs were asked if they had to guard against being overconfident against an opponent that was without a key player.

“Cammalleri's out and he's a great player, but they're a deep team and have tons of guys,” said Bozak. “I don't think one player is going to make that big of a difference.”

Versteeg, an ex-Blackhawk, says he'll miss the anthem singing in Chicago — it truly is an experience unto itself — but believes the atmosphere in the Air Canada Centre will be electric.

“It's about going out there and harnessing that energy in a positive way, and taking the crowd and using them as an advantage and really putting our best foot forward,” said Versteeg. “It's opening game, and I expect it's going to be loud.

“You come to Canadian buildings and it's there's a different mystique about them. It's going to be crazy. We're going to need them if we're going to have a successful season just as much as they need us.”

The Leafs don't have any rookies in the lineup, but the Habs have two — each with ties to Toronto. PK Subban of Rexdale is on the blue line. While Lars Eller — a Dane — subs for Cammalleri. Eller came to the Habs from St. Louis in the Jaroslav Halak deal. But he was picked 13th overall by St. Louis in the 2007 draft; that was the pick the Leafs had that they sent to San Jose in a package for Vesa Toskala. The Sharks flipped the pick to the Blues.

“Sure it was a Leaf pick, but they didn't want it,” said Eller. “It's history now.”

Subban became a star in Montreal through their remarkable playoff run last spring, but only played a handful of regular season games. He was asked if he still felt like a rookie. “If I say I don't, then you know what, things might get tense in the room, so yeah, I feel like a rookie,” said Subban. “I understand I haven't played a full season and I got some great experience (in the playoffs) rookies don't get. It's a little bit of a boost to your confidence, but you still have a lot to learn.”

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